Climate Change, Adaptation and Mitigation

What will you learn

During this minor you will get engaged in the multifaceted scientific, engineering, socio-economical and political aspects of climate change.

From a climate science perspective, you will get an overview of the Earth’s climate system, learn how it is perturbed by human interference and discuss the consequences for the present and future climate. The impacts of climate change on humans and the build environment will be discussed: How is the delta where we live in affected by climate change through sea level rise, soil subsidence, changes in precipitation, river discharges, draughts, flooding and salt intrusion?

Adaption, mitigation and climate engineering measures are a central part in this minor. Which engineering solutions (adaptations) can we design to cope with these changes? What are the possibilities and limitations of mitigation measures to meet the emission reduction requirements? And can we construct climate engineering solutions to undo the already committed climate change?

Parallel to these engineering possibilities, the mitigation and adaptation options will also be analysed from an socio-economical and political perspective: how can we make engineering solutions feasible from a economical and acceptable from a social perspective. As a result, this minor will enable you to develop a broad view on climate change and its consequences and will be of great value for any specialisation later later on in your educational journey.

After this minor the student:

• has developed a basic understanding of climate physics and climate predictions, is familiar with the different sources of uncertainties in todays’ climate predictions, and can explain the impact of climate change on humans and the natural and build environment.
• understands the effectiveness and limitations of climate adaptation options being considered;
• recognises the options to mitigate climate change, knows how to characterise them, and understands how they interact;
• can assess climate adaptation and mitigation measures from an economical perspective.
• Is able to assess the risk and probability of a certain manifestation of climate change; is able to design adaptation, mitigation and climate engineering strategies for specific cases along with political and economic implementation analyses.

Course overview